רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה׃
See, this day I set before you blessing and curse.
Deuteronomy 11:26
The word re'eh, meaning "to see" or "to perceive," opens this week's Torah moment. Re'eh is one of several words translated as "see" in Torah. In the Hasidic and Rabbinical traditions, it is the seeing that focuses us inward, toward understanding, insight, and wisdom.
The Hasidic teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, 1801–1854, (known as The Ishbitzer) explained that Torah uses the word re'eh to awaken us to see beyond the superficial appearance of things so we discern life's deeper meaning.
In the first century of the Common Era Rabbi Akiva spoke this way about re'eh:
Even as one looks at desolation, one who has true understanding and in-sight sees only goodness. This is true re’iya, seeing reality not with physical eyes alone, but with the cognizance of binah (discerning awareness) that reveals the shoresh (root) below the surface, the neshama (soul sources) of reality which is kulo tov (all good).
(Sourced through Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz, Re'eh study guide, 5780, my translations in parentheses).
How challenging this is! How can we see only goodness as we look at desolation? Our culture, biology, and history make it challenging for us to trust that there is goodness at the heart of things. Our compassion and care for the world, our need to contribute to justice and safety challenge this. Often our commitment to finding our own voice in the desolation, our integrity and honesty, challenge this.
At the heart of it, the goodness the rabbis speak of is the animating energy of life itself. In Torah terms, this goodness is God, the unified energy from which all form arises. In Buddhism, this is the reality of Oneness and inter-being. Nothing is separate from anything else. Can anyone doubt that the animating energy of life is anything but good?
How is it that we are blocked, over and over, from seeing and celebrating the beauty of our commonality and unity?
You must understand the whole of life, not just one part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, why you must sing, dance and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.
—KRISHNAMURTI, 20th century Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher
Other people’s intentions, sometimes their actions, and usually the impact of our own actions, often remain hidden to us. We aren't clearly seeing our own intentions. We act on "automatic pilot" or within cultural and societal constraints of privilege of which we are unaware. We act out of ancestral trauma, the origin of which may be known or unknown to us.
We mis-hear or impute intentions to others that we haven't seen. We get caught in our story about what happened, about what others did. And we don't know how to listen to their truth, their story, because we fear the loss of our own.
We don't see. And without clear seeing, we are left wandering in the wilderness, without understanding ourselves or others. Without understanding how our choices impact earth, other people, ourselves. We cause harm this way. The Promised Land spits us out.
Learning to discern the meaning we make of what happened to us from what happened is often taught as the first step in the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) process of connection.
The Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti once remarked that observing without evaluating is the highest form of human intelligence. When I first read this statement, the thought, “What nonsense!” shot through my mind before I realized that I had just made an evaluation.
— Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
From observation, NVC guides us to look below the surface of what we have seen. What were the feelings and needs that generated the person's choice of actions and words? The unifying premise is that the actions we took and observed are attempts to meet universal life needs. When we look deeply, re'eh, we see that everything anyone does or says, including actions and words that we see as harmful, are expressions of life itself.
The challenge is to meet this with compassion without causing further harm. Torah points us there in the first line of this week's portion:
רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה׃
See, this day I set before you blessing and curse:
Deuteronomy 11:26
Look, Torah says, reality encompasses everything. This is the meaning of "blessing and curse." Everything springs from the same source. See beyond the duality and separateness of blessing and curse. See that cause is in the effect and the effect is in the cause. They inter-are.
In this verse, Eternally Present manifests as anochi. Anochi presents us with a choice to see life as a blessing or a curse. It depends on how we see it, how we look at it.
Buddhism suggests we understand all actions as attempts to alleviate suffering. We do what we do because we believe it will help us stop our suffering. When we recognize this in ourselves and in others, we can trace back to the source of goodness in everything. Actions are a cry for help. Our choice to see it that way is a fruit of deep looking and brings more compassion into the world.
הִשָּֽׁמְר֣וּ לָכֶ֔ם פֶּ֥ן יִפְתֶּ֖ה לְבַבְכֶ֑ם וְסַרְתֶּ֗ם וַעֲבַדְתֶּם֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶ֖ם לָהֶֽם׃
Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them.
Deuteronomy 11:16
Torah recognizes how challenging it is for us to embrace the reality that blessing and curse are interdependent and that goodness is at the heart of it. We are so overcome by the challenges of survival that we turn to worship empty forms that offer relief. We are subject to influences that come from outside ourselves. We need to learn to look to the real being inside ourselves.
This was the final teaching of the Buddha, as told by the great Indian teacher, Vivekananda:
These are the memorable words of Buddha: "Believe not because an old book is produced as an authority. Believe not because your father said [you should] believe the same. Believe not because other people like you believe it. Test everything, try everything, and then believe it, and if you find it for the good of many, give it to all." And with these words, the Master passed away.
Swami Vivekananda, On the passing of the body of the Buddha
Torah's version of this is: "Do not attach yourself to any gods you don’t know." This teaching is so core to Torah that she uses graphic and disturbing images to convey it:
וְנִתַּצְתֶּ֣ם אֶת־מִזְבְּחֹתָ֗ם וְשִׁבַּרְתֶּם֙ אֶת־מַצֵּ֣בֹתָ֔ם וַאֲשֵֽׁרֵיהֶם֙ תִּשְׂרְפ֣וּן בָּאֵ֔שׁ וּפְסִילֵ֥י אֱלֹֽהֵיהֶ֖ם תְּגַדֵּע֑וּן וְאִבַּדְתֶּ֣ם אֶת־שְׁמָ֔ם מִן־הַמָּק֖וֹם הַהֽוּא׃
Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site.
Deuteronomy 12:3
“Destroy other people and their altars” is the instruction for inhabiting the Promised Land. When we understand this as a spiritual path, rather than an exhortation to do violence and destruction toward other peoples and their Gods and altars, we participate in an evolutionary leap for Sapiens. Understanding Torah as metaphor is what makes Torah a spiritual text.
The instruction is to destroy the altars that are already in the land, so that each person and each generation build new altars that reflect their deepest seeing.
It isn't only "foreign" altars that we are instructed to destroy to fulfill our promise as sapiens:
כִּ֣י יְסִֽיתְךָ֡ אָחִ֣יךָ בֶן־אִ֠מֶּ֠ךָ אֽוֹ־בִנְךָ֨ אֽוֹ־בִתְּךָ֜ א֣וֹ ׀ אֵ֣שֶׁת חֵיקֶ֗ךָ א֧וֹ רֵֽעֲךָ֛ אֲשֶׁ֥ר כְּנַפְשְׁךָ֖ בַּסֵּ֣תֶר לֵאמֹ֑ר נֵֽלְכָ֗ה וְנַֽעַבְדָה֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יָדַ֔עְתָּ אַתָּ֖ה וַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃
If your brother, your own mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your closest friend entices you in secret, saying, “Come let us worship other gods”—whom neither you nor your fathers have experienced—
מֵאֱלֹהֵ֣י הָֽעַמִּ֗ים אֲשֶׁר֙ סְבִיבֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם הַקְּרֹבִ֣ים אֵלֶ֔יךָ א֖וֹ הָרְחֹקִ֣ים מִמֶּ֑ךָּ מִקְצֵ֥ה הָאָ֖רֶץ וְעַד־קְצֵ֥ה הָאָֽרֶץ׃
from among the gods of the peoples around you, either near to you or distant, anywhere from one end of the earth to the other
וּסְקַלְתּ֥וֹ בָאֲבָנִ֖ים וָמֵ֑ת כִּ֣י בִקֵּ֗שׁ לְהַדִּֽיחֲךָ֙ מֵעַל֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ הַמּוֹצִיאֲךָ֛ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֥ית עֲבָדִֽים׃
Stone him to death, for he sought to make you stray from Eternally Present, who is showing you a way to deeper freedom
Deuteronomy 13:7–12
How do we embrace this spiritual metaphor? There is an often quoted story in Zen Buddhism, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.“
Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh helped me understand. I was part of a delegation that traveled to China with him and many monastic and lay students. We listened to a dharma talk about Chinese Buddhist practice from an old Abbot in a beautiful rebuilt monastery. The Abbott gave an exposition on the koan, a Zen teaching story, in which the student asks the teacher, does a dog have Buddha nature?
After the Abbott finished, Thich Nhat Hanh spoke. He said, The Master (referring to the esteemed Abbot) has spoken so deeply. I would like to give my students some enzymes to help them digest the Master's teaching. He went on to ask, “Does the dog have Buddha nature?” Of course. Everything has Buddha nature. This is the capacity, the nature, to wake up and become fully enlightened.
The koan and the Master are talking about the dog that’s in your mind when you ask the question: Does it have Buddha nature.
That dog is an image, not the real thing. The dog in your mind, like the image of “other gods“ is an invention of the mind. In Torah, there is only one God. That is one of the hallmarks of the entire religion. The instruction to kill the Buddha, to kill your own sisters and brothers, means, do not follow or worship truths that you haven't seen for yourself.
If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him.
Of course that Zen teaching isn’t telling us to kill the Buddha or to kill anyone. The first precept of Buddhism, engraved on the tablets brought down from Sinai, is the prohibition on killing. The Torah isn't telling us to kill our sister, brother, other peoples, their altars.
These teachings are meant to wake us up to how much we live in our heads, worshiping false news and false theories and false stories about ourselves and each other. If we are to inhabit the promised land, and not be spit out by it, we must stop worshiping our own beliefs at the expense of others’ beliefs.
This entire section of Torah, heightened in this week’s parsha, is the collective implementation of the Buddha’s dying teaching: don’t rely on anyone else’s insight. Practice, observe, See. If you as an individual want to live in the promised land, then you all, collectively, must find your own path your own way of harmonizing with the law of how things are. In these final chapters of Torah, Moses is saying goodbye. And so is the God that has led them through the desert — that God spoke to them through Moses. Now they are receiving instructions.
Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that mindfulness is always mindfulness of something.
Applying this to re'eh, Torah puts a choice before us, in every moment. It is on each of us to be mindful of the impact of our choices. In any moment, in any action, we have the opportunity to contribute to blessing or cursing life. The more we direct our mindfulness, seeing, re’eh, toward our own understanding and intentions, the more mindful we will be in our choices. Bringing the energy of mindfulness into our choices is the blessing.
As I look at the instructions in this week's Torah, some are inspiring and represent the longings in my heart, to care for the needy, Pay close attention to what we eat, and welcome the stranger. Others are unfathomable, not relevant or repugnant.
The path for me is to look deeply to see which choice is a blessing and which is a curse. I have inherited ways of living from my culture and ancestors. In the world today, some of these ways are "curses," such as driving my own car, taking more than my share fair of the world‘s abundance, withdrawing from those I love when I’m in pain, valuing certain people and beings more than others.
All of this comes about when I see myself or my small group as separate, as surviving separately from the whole of creation.
The Promised Land, to enter and inhabit, is where I learn to see deeply which of my ways of being are blessings and which are curses. It means going way beyond the edges and bounds of what my ancestors knew and did. This is what it means to be a Hebrew, an Ivri, a boundary crosser. The recognition that the boundaries from the past don’t serve the present or the future.
For more and more of us in the world today, this means identifying as a “post Zionist,“ and we can add as a, post European, a post anything.
From the beginning of history, something that has been a blessing to one group has been a curse to another. Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers are leading the way by acknowledging and embracing their two contradictory narratives-Blessing and curse -and using their courage to speak two truths in service of finding a way out of war, hatred and violence. As the organization Combatants for Peace says, war is not inevitable.
- Write down a judgment or a diagnosis or evaluation or analysis of someone. It could be anything from, she/he is full of themselves to she/he is selfish to she/he is dangerous, etc.
- Now write down one really specific action that person takes that supports your judgment. It could be something like, she/he isn’t vaccinated and is visiting elderly relatives. Or she/he is vaccinated and said to me, “You are being fooled into being afraid of the vaccine."
- First, notice if anything changes in you just by being in the process of translating your judgment into a direct observation. Sometimes just doing this simple translation relaxes our bodies and allows for curiosity toward the other person. This is a step toward connecting with the goodness we share, becoming curious about the life energy in them when they say or do as they did.
- Second, when you look at the action they took that supports your analysis or judgment about them, can you ask yourself, what are they feeling when they take that action? Can you imagine or guess what needs of theirs they were trying to meet when they took that action? (By needs, we mean a value or dream that opens our heart to them because it is a universal longing, such as safety, respect, trust, or to be known and seen.)
You can ask yourself, “What is it that they want more of in the world, what are they dreaming of, to make a more beautiful world?” Ask yourself with curiosity (this is a real inquiry, not a rhetorical question!), “Can I see how their action is an attempt to meet a universal human need?” If resistance arises when you do this, hold a mirror to yourself. Ask yourself, “How am I feeling, trying to connect with their experience in this way?” What are you telling yourself is wrong with you doing that?
Connect with your own feelings and needs that make it hard for you to be curious and engage with the other person. Your fears and aversion. Your needs for safety, respect, trust, preserving life.
Do that as necessary until you experience a relaxation in yourself and a willingness to be more curious about the other person.
Remind yourself that the relationship or the outcome matters to you and that’s why you’re doing this. This is the challenge of evolving from the apparent duality of life, what appears as separate blessing and curse, to understanding that we act in alignment with how things are when we meet at the intersection of both.
In the land known as Israel today, more and more Jewish people are understanding that the freedom gifted to the Jewish people in 1948 was a disaster that befell the Palestinians. More and more Palestinians are understanding that the oppression and violence toward Jews throughout history brought Jews to that point.
This is blessing and the curse co-arising and co-existing. Choosing life, rising to a new promise, means not turning away from either.
What would it mean to embrace both, to choose to embrace the reality of both? To choose to embrace the duality of experiences with compassion, care and respect for all life. Can we do what Rabbi Akiva said, and see the shared goodness of creation at the heart of it all?
No one can live alone in The Promised Land. It’s a land for all of us.
An NVC Self Forgiveness Exercise for the Month of Elul
Self Empathy: Embracing the Blessing and the Curse.
- Write down something you now regret that you did.
- Give yourself a deep experience of empathy and accompaniment by finding the needs you were trying to meet when you did that.
(It is helpful to use practice with the “continuum“ of needs. For example, I feel regretful about how I spoke to someone on the phone yesterday. I was triggered because I had rented a house and the key didn’t work. I felt so overwhelmed and vulnerable that my consciousness went into blame. I couldn’t think straight and felt frustrated and angry. My tone with the woman from the rental agency conveyed my frustration and anger and it is a tribute to her that she didn’t take it personally. And still I am sure it was unpleasant for her.
Doing this process now I realize I wanted support, I wanted help, and if I had support and help, I would have felt ease and safety.
The continuum of needs practice is that I start with what I wanted in the immediate sense, help and support. I keep going in my inquiry and ask myself, if I had had all the support and help that I wanted, then what needs would be met? The needs for ease, relaxation and trust. Trust that I was in the hands of a caring community and universe.
I feel myself relax and a soothing energy permeates as I do this, as I go deeper down the continuum of needs.
Once I get to trust and ease, I sit with those needs and let the energy of them permeate my body. I bathe in them.
After I have done this deep self empathy practice with myself, I might try it on someone else. When that person spoke to me the way they did or acted in the world the way they did, what needs can I imagine they were trying to meet?
At first, when I begin this process, I am still angry and not willing at all to connect with their needs. So I say things like, “They want control,” “They are selfish and they don’t care about anyone else,” “They are destroying the earth, they are harming children.” “They are sadistic.” This is what comes out of me at first.
This isn't wrong. It's useful information, to help me understand my own experience and what is important to me. But the purpose of Nonviolent Communication is met as I keep going. As with Judaism and Buddhism, the purpose is to bring more compassion and healing into the world. So I keep going.
If they were able to have the power to harm, then what needs of theirs would be met? Full empowerment. If they had full empowerment then what need would be met in them? Safety and ease.
Of course it doesn’t always go this smoothly. What comes up in me is, “They want control and power.”
I keep going with the continuum of needs. If they had control and power, what beautiful need of theirs would be met? It’s hard to do this because it calls upon me to drop what Marshall Rosenberg calls “enemy images“ of them. Am I imagining this person with fangs and hateful visage? Yes I am.
So I go back to my own self empathy. How am I feeling and what are my needs when I think about what this person does?
The process goes on because, like blessing and curse, blame and shame co arise and co exist.
See, this day, I put before you blessing and curse. The choice is yours.
Why would I choose blessing? Because what Torah means by blessing is choosing the path that will bring about healing in the world.
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu, Chapter 57
Rule a nation with justice.
Wage war with surprise moves.
Become master of the universe without striving.
How do I know that this is so?
Because of this!
The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.
Therefore the sage says:
I take no action and people are reformed.
I enjoy peace and people become honest.
I do nothing and people become rich.
I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.
(translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)
Excellent warriors are not violent.
Excellent soldiers are not furious.
Excellent conquerors do not engage.
Excellent leaders of people lower themselves.
This is called the virtue of no strife.
This is called the use of people's capacity.
This is called the union with Heaven.
It is the perfection of the ancients.
Tao Te Ching - Chapter 68
The Taoist Classic by Lao Tzu
Eikev to Re’eh: Because, See
Elana Klugman
See this day I set before you blessing and curse
Parsha Re’eh. Devarim 11:26
Eikev is named for an uncommon word meaning “because.” Rashi points out that eikev can also mean heel. Yitzi Hurwitz
Unhappy, storm-tossed one, uncomforted
Isaiah. 54:11. the third Haftorah of Consolation
The Hebrew letters that spell out the name of the Jewish month that we have just entered – Elul – are described in the Talmud as an acronym for the phrase from Song of Songs: ‘Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li‘ – I am my beloved and my beloved in mine. Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz
Because, eikev, we came
from Egypt and saw
our mothers and fathers
wander and perish,
because we have lived too long
in the storm-tossed deserts,
have not yet seen how any land
might welcome us
with milk and honey.
Because, eikev, we need each other
and sometimes like Yaacov
we must hold on to the heel
of another to make it through
the dark passage and then confused
about when to let go. We hold on
through storms, pandemics,
through famines and oppressions
until re’eh, we see a cleft, a foothold
on the smooth rock face.
And with our own eyes re’eh
we see a thread of light
moving out from the uncomforted
dark of Av, the first silver glint
of Elul, calling : ani l’dodi v’dodi li,
and so we see how this is our Torah,
where we belong, beloved between
the mountains of blessing
and the mountains of curse,
gathered under the waxing light
of the moon, a new forgiving
year just beyond the horizon
as Elul, tenderly bends towards us
and our remaining
tasks of repair.
Elana Klugman
draft 8/4/21
This d’var Torah was very meaningful to me personally. I’ll probably read it more than once to absorb it more fully. Thank you Roberta!
Dear Leslie, I’m smiling, imagining you absorbing and vegetating with Torah! Love, Roberta
Okay, Roberta, you ask for it! Here it is!
I am telling you in no small short words or tones; I truly am moved by your Blog!
Each one in some way, brings harmony to my mind-soul and creates challenges in me to go further and further go!
A funny story: I was asked to review and critique a young man’s book he had written; endeavoring to connect
Christianity-Judism-Buddism. Well, we fell out from that day to this one and he eventually moved out of town. Maybe others critiqued it in a similar way, because he was never able to get it published.
Your Blog on the other hand nails it in every way to me. The connecting ‘sameness’ I call it with Hebrew and Buddhism!
I also know that I can part with you on some levels and not be disconnected or thrown aside by you.
Your blogs inspire me to think, to challenge my mind, to study and seek more of the universal knowledge and lastly; it activities my Black-African-Hebrew Play-Mind. Like the one a few weeks ago, about Moses the Teacher, the Great LawGiver. When I finished reading it, I said to myself; The Jews, Europeans that is, have just taken Moses all to themselves and nobody else! Our close-knit European Brothers and Sisters forget-forgot that Moses was a High Priest in Egypt! I know the Bible and Torah says that He was not allowed to enter the Promised Land but was given only a glimpse.
I got in trouble about this very verse as a teenager in Sunday School and the S.S.Teacher went to my daddy sitting on his front porch to tell on me. Dad stopped him and asked one question; “Was my Son disrespectful?” “Oh no, never, But”, the teacher said!” At this juncture, Dad wouldn’t let him finish and firmly said, “Well get off my porch and go on back to y’all church! I teach my son to have an open mind and to think”.
So reading your Blog brought it all back up and I really said something like this in Sunday School; “The Hebrews knew that they could not take his body out of Egypt, because he was a High Priest and had been in line earlier for Pharoth. so the Egyptians probably came and got him!” (You can imagine saying this to an old Southern Black Preacher! ). But I have spoken since about it in my presentations and speeches. I warn the audience and us all; Watch out! The many discoveries coming out of Egypt in these times. I am waiting to read or hear the news of unearthing the tomb and burial place of Our Great High Priest of Egypt-MOSES!
What a day of revelation revealed and I would love to see the unprepared reactions!
Dear Zach,
As usual your insights and words blow my mind in the best way. Moses, a high priest of Egypt, was already in the promised land, the promised land of Egypt. Now freed from slavery and Pharoah , a land Of the highest human achievements. Wow wow wow. I say amen, and I learned this week that in Hebrew, the word amen means something very close to, I trust that this is true. So again I say, amen. Your sister in all ways, Roberta
Amen Amen, dear friend!
Reading your blog keep me with hope w
the power of knowing; WE SHALL WIN! We GONNA WIN!
I began my day taking this in !
I loved reading that the animated energy of goodness is the deepest God .
And the understanding that we need to destroy the fixed existing altars
so that new enlivened altars can be emerge.
I love the strong braid you continue to weave of Judaism – Buddhism – and NVC – a powerful binding.
And ending with the path of healing and the word “repair”.
Thank you for the deeper seeing.
Dear Barbara,
Reading this, that the animated energy of goodness is the deepest God, it’s just the medicine I need in this moment. Yes I really do completely trust that.That life itself and its core, at the inception of animation, is goodness. That feels like some kind of balm for sure. When I looked really deeply, I have a little glimpse into seeing it, beyond all the false idols. I love how you mirror back in a way that gives me a completely new seeing. With love and friendship, Roberta
Dearest Roberta,
Loving greetings and Shabbat Shalom.
I have just finished your wise and thoughtful comments on today’s Torah parsha. I was amazed to see how widely you’re read and in touch with so many sages of various spiritual traditions. Yasha koach (pls forgive my sloppy Hebrew). Your familiarity with the teachings of so many spiritual masters is stunning and impressive. I too am a student of hassidus and Lao Tzu, Judaism, Buddism and Yoga. (I never got into Non-Violent Communication because it always keeps Violence on the table, I think they ought to change their name, such as Peaceful Communications.)
About seeing goodness in desolation — a mysterious challenge when some asshole goes into a kindergarten and shoots six children and the teacher to death. The pain and despair of their families is worse than the death of their children. (There may be nothing wrong with death on this planet.)
As I’ve aged, I’ve become more and more enriched by the beauties of nature, of love in our midst, of a heavenly “presence” before me. But the mystery of so much cruelty mixed in with all this beauty mystifies me. The God we worship is reported to be just and merciful and I am blessed sometimes to feel that uplifting presence.
But what about all the unkindness on this planet, in this incarnation? How do you reconcile this?
Love from an admiring bro, Prahaladan (Pip Mandelkorn)
Dear Brother Praha,
Of course you ask just the question that I too wrestle with, with no answers in me. In let her to a young poet, Rilke advises, call Live the questions. Keeping those questions alive in me, asking God in the kabbalat Shabbat Amidah, as I wander outside in the field, I keep asking. With love, your KZ sister.
An excellent offering of insight, compassion, and wisdom! I so appreciate the “triangulation” of Torah, Buddhism, and NVC and how this is a way forward to the gift of universal peace and heeling. Thank you, Roberta, for your courage and commitment and your beautiful writing!
Thank you my dear Dharma Torah brother.
Hi Roberta – My Shabbat practice, particularly in this time of pandemic, is to make collages, based on the weekly Torah portion. My process is to read the parsha and various commentaries during the week, gradually dreaming into a visual image that I create after meditation and davenning on Saturday afternoon/evening. My challenge is to create something using the papers and materials I already have, finding a visual response to abstract concepts through the use of colour, texture, pattern and text.
This week’s piece, which I call, Eyes Wide Open, was strongly influenced by your Re’ei reflections. I shall send you the collage separately.
This piece found its genesis in the first section of the the parsha, the verses about choosing whether to see life’s blessings or curses, or as you put it, looking below the surface to see that everything is an expression of life itself – that things “inter-are”. Lately I have been pondering the definition of Yisrael, often described as “God wrestling people” but I am gradually seeing that to wrestle with God is to struggle to find the blessings within the curses.
I was much moved by Elana Klugman’s draft poem that you included, as well as Wall’s quote from Rabbi Akiva.
I included Rabbi Shefa Gold’s translation of the Gal Einai chant (psalm 119:19) because it was so present for me as I created the collage. It fits the theme so perfectly as it is about the wonder of seeing what is really there – all of it.
I chose the colours quite deliberately – the shadowy greys obscuring the heart-centred colours of pinks and crimsons. Despite the dominant image of the roses in the centre, you really have to look behind the words and the fractured frame to discern what they are. This seems consistent with the theme of having to look below the surface to see whether it is Mount Gerizim or Mount Ebal that is reflecting back. Similarly the other patterned paper, the grey grid on the white background, full of decision points and direction changes, reminiscent to me of a life full of static, is softened by the shadowy pink-greys of the flower dye-cuts. Again, nothing is completely clear, everything can be taken in oppositional ways, and everything is all part of the one, unified contained image.
Dear Toni,
My heart just sings as I take in the richness and beauty of your engagement, your dance, your wrestling with Torah. I especially love this: “ I am gradually seeing that to wrestle with God is to struggle to find the blessings within the curses.” I was just reflecting on that on a rainy evening here. In the uncertainties and so much suffering in our world, the wrestling itself, perhaps, is a blessing and can we find Not only meaning, but some kind of satisfaction and peace with how we are showing up in life. I would love to see the collages anytime. With love and friendship, Roberta
A lot of wisdom in this teaching.
I’d write more, but then I’d be guilty of evaluating a piece about the dangers of evaluating! So instead, simple appreciation.
thank you Rich. For some reason this just showed up in my dashboard! And, some thoughts generated by what you wrote: of course we go through life evaluating and discerning. I think my current take away is to be aware and make sure I’m fully in choice and meeting the needs I want to meet, bringing the energy I want to bring into the world,when I am evaluating, rather than being on some automatic pilot and confusing my evaluations with what I’m actually observing. I tried to bring the energy of curiosity to my analyzing- and what is generating it to come through me?